Building a friendship
by Lora Kael
Summary: A little fluff about the Potters and Malfoys trying to become more friendly with each other. Harry and Draco bickers (of course) and somehow sporks and chopsticks get involved. R&R please.


Building a friendship

Disclaimer: Just a little idea that popped into my head and I thought I'd share with the rest of you. :) I hope you'll enjoy it.

* * *

Albus had to admit it had gone better than he had thought it would when his parents had suggested they invite the Malfoys over during the Christmas holiday.

Sure, things were still awkward and somewhat strained between his and Scorpius's fathers, but despite their bickering it didn't seem too bad. What was worse was that he still struggled with understanding his own father and had to deal with that on top of everything else, but things were going better, too. After the whole debacle with Delphi he had started to gain an understanding of his father and why he acted the way he did, and though he couldn't say he really understood him yet, it was definitely better than just a few months ago.

What was better was that his parents strained relationship had improved greatly. Albus remembered having been concerned that they would continue arguing and fighting, but they had both been back to their old loving selves this Christmas. What he didn't realise was that both the strain on their relationship and the improvement had to do with his own relationship with his father.

And now they were here; the Potters and Malfoys gathered under one roof and everyone being friendly with one another. Well, mostly friendly. Harry and Draco probably wouldn't become the best of friends overnight even if their sons were.

"Thanks for the tea, Ms. Potter," Scorpius said politely to Ginny, who smiled back.

"Anytime, Scorpius. And do call me Ginny; there's no reason to be formal here."

He nodded. "I'll remember that. Just more used to being formal, I guess."

"Politeness is never a bad thing," Harry said with a little smile.

There was a slight pause and that was the awkwardness of the whole thing; the adults weren't quite used to talking together as friends, so sometimes they simply didn't know what to say. He and Scorpius tried to fill in the gaps, but Albus had to admit Scorpius was better at it than he was.

This time, however, Draco got there first. "Are you two staying out of trouble at school? No getting involved in new and complicated things?"

Scorpius and Albus both managed to look slightly insulted at that.

"Of course, we're staying out of trouble," Scorpius said.

"Yeah, we don't need any further punishments on top of our current ones," Albus added.

Harry grinned. "Good. Because I don't think any of us want to get involved in anything as complicated as what happened with Delphi this autumn. Staying out of trouble is definitely the sensible thing to do."

Draco turned towards Harry and raised an eyebrow. "And when did you ever stay out of trouble at school?"

"About as often as you, as I remember," Harry answered easily.

Draco's eyebrow rose further. "I think I remember you got into way more trouble than just about anyone else." He paused briefly, looking thoughtful. "Except maybe the Weasley twins. They got into plenty of trouble, too. Just lesser trouble than you."

"Why, thank you for that, Malfoy," Harry replied dryly.

Albus snickered. He knew about most of his father's adventures at school, but he had sometimes forgotten how much trouble he got into during all of it, too, before he somehow ended up the school hero. His father certainly had quite a record for detentions.

"Well, I try to keep us both out of trouble," Scorpius said, somehow managing to say it with a straight face.

Albus nodded vigorously. "That's true; it's all work and no fun with Scorpius."

"You two just keep it that way and you might get to go to Hogsmeade next year," Draco said.

Albus and Scorpius both smiled at that.

Albus thought how nice it was that they could all hang out like this without Harry and Draco only just tolerating each other. They were actually both really trying to build a friendship for the sake of Scorpius and him. And although he did love his brother, he was glad that James was visiting friends. James could be quite a handful and he didn't think he would have been a help in getting their father to bond with Draco.

Lily was home, but had offered to help clean up after lunch, so right now it was just the five of them sitting and drinking tea and talking.

Draco looked more closely at Harry. "Potter, I have got to ask; isn't that scar new?" He nodded towards a thin line across Harry's left cheek.

Albus and Scorpius looked, too. Albus had noticed the scar when he got home for Christmas, but hadn't asked about it; the relationship he had with his father right now was still tentative and he tried to keep to safe subjects so they didn't risk fighting. So far it had worked, but he was curious, too.  
Harry nodded. "It is. Not sure if this one will disappear, but what is one more?"

Again Draco raised an eyebrow. "But shouldn't the healers have taken care of it? Don't tell me your healers at the office are that bad."

Harry snorted. "They're not. It's just that the item that gave me this was cursed, and you know how it is with curses; they tend to stick around."

Everyone's eyes automatically travelled to Harry's lighting scar, partially hidden under his unruly hair.

"That's true," Draco conceded. Then curiosity taking over, he asked: "What happened?"

Harry signed. "You heard about the trouble in Yorkshire last month?" When Draco nodded Harry continued. "Well, the witch causing all that trouble cursed anything and everything when we came to deal with her. The air was practically full of flying objects we had to avoid. There was so much the aurors had trouble getting a shot at her, because they had to defend themselves from what was attacking them."

"She sounds like my aunt," Draco said making a face.

"That is a surprisingly good comparison," Harry agreed, not needing to ask which aunt Draco was referring to. "At any rate, we couldn't risk her getting away and causing even more harm, so I took the chance to duck under and through the storm of flying objects so I could stop her. It did work, but I got hit by a spork just as I managed to get her pacified and stop most of the flying things."

Draco blinked. "A what?"

"A spork," Harry repeated.

Scorpius traded glances with Albus, but he shrugged slightly in return. He had no idea what a spork was either.

"And just _what_ is a spork?" Draco asked, sounding as if he suspected Harry of pulling his leg.

"It's – no, it'll be easier to show you than explaining it. It is this," Harry said, pulling his wand out and flicking it.

A metal spoon appeared in the air between them, landing lightly on the table among the tea cups. No, not a spoon, Albus realised. A spoon didn't have little teeth at the end.

"That, " Harry said, "is a spork."

Draco stared at it. "Why does it look like a weird mix of a spoon and a fork?"

"Because that's exactly what it is," Harry replied. "Spoon plus fork becomes spork."

Draco made a face again. "That just sounds ridiculous."

Harry shrugged. "Well, I didn't name it. Just telling you what it's called."

"But how did that cause a wound?" Scorpius asked, picking it up and turning it over. "It doesn't look like it can cut anything."  
"That would be the cursed part," Harry replied. "And it did have considerable speed, too."

"But why would anyone even make something like this?" Draco still looked at it in disbelief.

"Oh, it's used by muggle scouts and those who like hiking," Harry explained. When Draco and the others looked at him uncomprehending, he elaborated. "To save on space and weight. Instead of having both a spoon and a fork with them they can just take a spork."

"That just seems like a stupid thing to do. Why would they need to save space and weight anyway?"

Harry signed. "Because they don't have magic like us. And not having magic makes them get creative."

Draco looked at the spork with some disdain. "I'm surprised they didn't add a knife into it while they were at it."

"Oh, that version does exist," Harry assured him.

Draco shook his head. "I'll never understand muggles. Making such weird utensils instead of just using forks and knives and spoons."

"It's not that weird," Ginny said. "Just think there are places where they don't use forks at all."

"Or knives," Harry added.

Both Draco's eyebrow rose. "And how would you eat without using forks and knives? Only using a spoon for everything?"

"That would get impractical with a steak," Scorpius mused.

"Or the Christmas duck," Albus added.

Ginny smiled at them, then looked at Draco before she answered. "People use a pair of sticks instead."

"Nonsense," Draco exclaimed.

But both Harry and Ginny shook their heads.

"No, they really do. They're called chopsticks, and are short, wooden sticks you can eat with."

"How would that even work?" Draco asked sceptically.

"It's like this; you hold both sticks in one hand and pinch them together to grab the food," Ginny explained.

When Draco still looked unconvinced, Harry signed. "Fine. We'll just have to show it then. Come on," he said rising.

The others got up, too, Draco asking: "What now?"

Harry looked at him, his wand at the ready again. "We go out and introduce you and Scorpius to chopsticks and Chinese food. Now hold still; you'll need muggle clothes to fit in."

Draco looked like he was going to protest whatever Harry had planned, but never got the chance, before Harry had flicked his wand and Draco found himself holding new clothes. He looked relieved Harry hadn't tried to change his actual clothes, but just had given him something to change into.

Ginny called for Lily to go get changed, so they could all go out.

Harry looked at Scorpius. "You've got something to change into?"

"Um..."

"All right, just stand there for a moment; I need to get the right size." Then he flicked his wand again and Scorpius stood holding a new set of muggle clothes, too. "Go, get changed, you two."

And with that Harry went after Ginny to get into proper muggle clothes himself.

Albus grinned at Scorpius and they hurried to his room, leaving Draco behind, looking somewhat sceptical at what Harry had conjured for him.

"This is fun," Scorpius commented as they were changing. "I wasn't sure if our parents would be able to act like friends, but this is going great!"

Albus had to agree. "Yeah. Our fathers doing a lot better than I thought they would. I just hope your father doesn't try to murder mine with his muggle clothes and trying to teach him about muggle eating habits."

Scorpius stopped what he was doing and mined holding a newspaper. In a serious voice he said: "Daily Prophet: Auror and wizard hero strangled with muggle clothes by former schoolmate after he tried getting said schoolmate to change into the muggle clothes. Little, wooden sticks may have been involved, too."

Albus grinned. "Oh, I don't think it would go that far; my dad's got too fast reflexes to be caught unaware like that."

Scorpius grinned back, continuing changing. "Good, because I'd rather not my father go to Azkaban for killing my best friend's father."

"Agreed."

As they went back to the living room, Albus felt slightly envious of Scorpius's clothes; they definitely looked newer and smarter than his own, but he was also glad his father had made sure Scorpius got something nice. He hoped he had done the same for Draco.

They all gathered in the living room, Ginny straightening Lily's hair tie.

Harry looked Draco over and Albus did the same. Draco was dressed in a pair of slacks, white shirt and a blazer on top, and he thought he looked pretty good. Harry, however, wasn't quite pleased.

"Malfoy, you're not supposed to fasten the last buttons."

"Why not?" Draco asked. "They are there, are they not?"

"Yeah," Harry said. "But you're not wearing a tie. Muggle fashion say to leave the top unbuttoned when you're without a tie."

Draco looked about to argue the point, when Harry simply stepped closer and undid the top buttons again. He was so surprised by the action he forgot what he was about to say.

"There; now you look like a fashionable muggle." Harry looked around, checking the boys were ready. "All right, let's get going then."

A moment later the living room was empty, only the tea cups and Draco's wizard clothes revealing there had recently been people there.

§

Half an hour later they were all sitting in a Chinese restaurant trying their best to eat with chopsticks. Draco had tried to take a fork and knife instead, but had been told sternly no by not only Harry and Ginny, but, to his surprise, Scorpius, too. Now Harry was trying to teach him the basics of eating with chopsticks despite not being an expert himself, and Albus was listening to them insult each other while doing so. There was something familiar about it all and he grinned at Scorpius, who had given up trying to lift the food and was simply using both sticks to spoon it up and into his mouth instead.

"No, you have to hold one of them firm and only move the other – "

"As if you can do any better, Potter. You lose half your food every time you try to grab something."

"At least I'm trying. You're stabbing at your food."

"Well, it's not my fault someone insisted on eating with such stupid utensils. They're not even real utensils, just sticks."

" _I_ didn't invent them. And people use these everyday on the other side of the world; you need to broaden your horizons, Malfoy."

"My horizons are broad enough, thank you."

Lily hissed as she got something still too hot into her mouth, but managed not to spit it out again.

Ginny looked very concentrated as she carefully closed her chopsticks around some food and lifted it to her mouth as fast as she dared.

Albus wasn't having much luck either, but he was having fun, and that was the most important part. Finally they were starting to feel like friends and family. Even Harry's and Draco's bickering and slight insults felt like an old routine, and Albus thought this might all work out in the end. He smiled, content with the way things were. Then he cursed as everything he had carefully lifted slipped free and fell back down to the plate.


End file.
